The hype around blockchain has never been hotter. Mostly known as the technology behind cryptocurrencies, it is beginning to enter more mainstream conversations. What was once after-hours fodder for IT futurists has now caught the attention of business leaders in search of security solutions. 

To help our futures community understand how the industry is navigating blockchain we connected with Moon Jérin, who is an industry expert at the University College London’s Centre for Blockchain Technologies (CBT). Get to know Moon in the clip below as she shares the current challenges and fears she’s seen in the industry.

As Moon shares, collaboration is key to helping us validate these technologies. While the research and development grows, we need business leaders to embrace a prototyping mindset and design pilots that help test and nurture these technologies within organizations. 

In healthcare, the use-cases for blockchain in medical billing, patient records, research, and even addressing global health inequalities have been well researched and reported.

What we need now is to put these theories into practice in safe, controlled environments. In the clip below, Moon and Rhea comment on common use-cases for blockchain in healthcare and how consumers are responding to data sharing. 

Harnessing the power of health data is a systems challenge. Tech can’t do it alone, and blockchain is only one tool.

As we make this shift, we also need to make sure the people designing blockchain solutions are representative of the people we hope to serve. The successful adoption of these technologies will ultimately require cross-sector collaboration and a strong focus on education. 

To bypass this fear and resistance to change, we need to create more opportunities for dialogue and learning. We are conditioned to accept top-down centralized structures, and this shift to shared governance and decentralized systems will take time for different actors to embrace. 

Being mindful and building our cyber-consciousness is undoubtedly part of the blockchain journey.

Explore our growing content library and filter by the topics that impact your work! We've interviewed global experts from over 7 countries to understand the trends and tensions in the future of digital health.

We’re also excited to present the Bowhead Futures Digest: a newsletter for leaders looking to learn, debate, and co-create a future where technology & data empower our health. Sign up here!